ATP and WTA release joint film "Tennis is Life"

While 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, a lot of good has come from it and one major development has been the aligning of the WTA and ATP Tours.

At the start of the pandemic, they launched the weekly digital show "Tennis United", hosted by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Vasek Pospisil. Then they rebranded their websites within a few weeks of each other and the WTA changed its tournament naming system to mirror the ATP's.

And now, the tours have released a joint film called "Tennis is Life". Created by London-based agency MATTA, the 90-second video documents experiences both in quarantine and competition. The narration is by top players, including the likes of Daniil Medvevev, Victoria Azarenka, Bianca Andreescu, Dominic Thiem and Coco Gauff, as they read passages from Andre Agassi's autobiography "Open".

The purpose of the film is to thank those that made the return of tennis possible.

“Our sport’s return to play is a testament to the collective resilience and hard work of so many individuals,” said WTA President Micky Lawler. “We’re incredibly blessed to have the support of one another in this global community and are reminded that the year 2020 took sacrifice and teamwork. We hope this collaborative film with the ATP reflects our gratitude to those who made it possible and celebrates the human qualities that brought us together and realized our united strength.”